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comment by MattholomewCup
MattholomewCup  ·  4027 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: In Some States, Gun Rights Trump Orders of Protection

So why can't we just say, force the gun owner with protective orders against them to give up their guns for 6 months, a year, two years tops depending on their history? Do we really choose the strictest possible interpretation of the second amendment over "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" for people who are quite possibly the survivors of violent, toxic relationships?

    “Once a person has an injunction issued against him, he is already a prohibited person. He cannot, under the Fifth Amendment, be forced to disclose whether he is in possession of firearms, because that would be tantamount to forcing him to admit a crime.”
What? I really don't understand this one, and it sounds incredibly defensive on the part of the gun-rights advocate speaking. Why is being forced to disclose your firearm possession tantamount to admitting to a crime (unless even the advocates are suggesting that gun ownership has a negative, criminal connotation)?

Why is this a radically anti-gun idea? It sounds like common sense - take guns away from people who have a history of violence while they are in an emotionally distraught part of their lives. Given how frequently the shooters in these stories seem to proceed to kill themselves, it seems like it's for their own safety just as much as for the victims'.





user-inactivated  ·  4027 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    It was in recognition of these converging realities that Congress included a provision in the 1994 crime bill, over the objections of the N.R.A., that barred most people subject to full protective orders filed by intimate partners from purchasing or possessing firearms.

I too would like to know exactly what objections the NRA could possibly have to this.

TallPaul  ·  4021 days ago  ·  link  ·  

A protective order is the not the same as a crime. The court order is there because someone could commit the crime, so he is ordered to stay away so that he doesn't. There is by and large a low burden of proof to obtain a restraining order because the inconvenience to the restrained person is so low as compared to the increased safety of the victim. HOWEVER, the right to possess a firearm is a very important right; the removal of which ought to require the actual commitment of a crime as opposed to someone accusing the possibility of a crime being committed. Keep in mind that the Supreme Court holds freedom of speech in the same echelon as the right to bear arms since McDonald v. Chicago. In addition, the vast majority of firearms are unregistered in the United States, making the police seizing a gun owner's property an impossibility in most cases.

Like it or not, as long as gun ownership remains a fundamental right in the USA, the best thing for someone filing a restraining order against a gun owner is to buy a gun herself.